he sent an assistant out here, andrew douglas, to map sites around the territory, and they chose flagstaff. flagstaff has very dark skies, and was at a higher elevation, 7000 feet. the higher the elevation, the less air you have to look through. the less distortion. the air is like a swimming pool. when you open your eyes in a swimming pool everything is kind , of fuzzy because the water is bending that light -- air does the same thing. so the more air you look through the more distorted stars are going to look through. there are higher elevations, the dark side, great location. -- dark skies, a great location. when you drive around, up on mars hill, where lowell observatory is located, you see the dome of the telescope standing 40 feet tall, like a birthday cake on top of the hill. he decided to set up his observatory in 1894, and had this telescope built, a 24 inch diameter, 32 foot refracting telescope. that means it uses lenses instead of mirrors to collect the light. he built this in 1896 and it was used in mexico for about one year, then brought back here in 1897 and has been here ev